Free Or Paid PMP Practice Exam?

You must be wondering if there are so many free sources for PMP practice exams, why I should invest in a paid exam.

Your dilemma is absolutely understandable. In fact, I have written a post that has a compilation of 3500+ PMP practice questions. Some of the free exams are very good, but in order to complete your preparation you should do some paid exams also.

In the previous article, I had listed some of the reasons for investing in a paid exam. In this article, let us look at the complete list of reasons for investing in a paid exam.

The Reasons for Investing in a Paid PMP Practice Exam

In the previous article, we discussed the importance of the free exams and how they can be used for the exam preparation. In this article, let us discuss how & why the paid exams score over the free exams.

The PMP practice exams

should be periodically upgraded – Every few years PMI changes the Exam Content Outline and the PMBOK Guide. The practice exams should be updated with these changes. Most of the free exams are not updated regularly but the paid exams are. You should not prepare for the exam from old & outdated content.

should provide exam simulation experience – Very few free exams provide simulation experience. The real PMP exam is conducted on a computer terminal. Before you appear in the PMP Exam, you should have practiced a few tests in a simulated environment.

should provide really serious & difficult questions – Most of the free exams have non-unique & regular content. You should not do questions that everyone else is also doing. It does not give you any extra advantage over the other aspirants.

should provide multiple sets of full length 200 questions – Very few free exams provide complete 200 questions sets. It is important that you do at least two full length tests before sitting in the PMP exam. By doing this, you will get to understand your sitting & concentration capacity over a period of 4 hours.

should be frequently revised and updated to incorporate the aspirants’ feedback – This does not usually happen with the free exams.

should be reviewed by an expert(s) before being published – Free exams are prepared but rarely reviewed by experts or peers. The chances of error in a paid PMP practice exam are much less than a free exam.

should conform to the latest PMP exam trends – The free exams follow the delayed exam trends. You will not get to know what is happening the PMP world by doing free tests only.

should allow you to randomly pick questions based on Knowledge Area (KA) and Process Group (PG) – There may be some free exams that provide this feature but I do not know of any. Most of the popular paid exams provide this feature. Using this feature, you can brush-up specific PMP concepts.

should provide extensive reporting features – Again, I have not seen any free exam that provides this feature. As you prepare for the PMP Exam, you should gauge your strengths & weaknesses and check your progress. You can achieve this by doing a few paid exams.

In addition to the reasons listed above, there are 3 other reasons why you should invest in the paid PMP practice exams.

The paid exams are not really expensive when you look at the overall cost – The exam fee is about $550. A classroom training or instructor led online training can cost anywhere between $200 to $2000 depending on where you live. In addition to these costs, you may buy an exam preparation book for about $50. In all, you would be spending quite a lot of money. It makes sense to spend another $50-$100 for paid PMP practice exams, if it increases your chances of success.

The paid exams forces you to crack the PMP exam sooner – There is a time limit associated with the paid tests. Once you buy them, you get a window of few weeks to a few months. This forces you to complete your PMP Exam within that window. PMP Certification is a prestigious & respected certification. Many salary surveys suggest that PMPs, on an average, earn higher than non-PMPs. It is better to get the increase (in the salary) sooner rather than later. A paid exam is worth the extra investment.

Conclusion

I believe it make lot of sense to invest in a PMP practice exam. It gives your preparation an extra push and increases your chances of success. If you decide to invest in a paid practice exam, you should choose a popular online exam simulator and not a CD based system. CDs are outdated and you will not get as many benefits as you would get from an online exam.

Over To You

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Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links – it means that, if you buy from any of these links, then I will receive a small commission that would help me in maintaining this blog for free. However, for you, there is no extra cost. I recommend only those products that I believe will definitely help the certification aspirants.

Praveen Malik, PMP

​Praveen Malik ​is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP®) with a rich 23+ years of experience. He is a leading Project Management Instructor, Coach and ​Advisor. He ​has successfully trained thousands of aspirants for the PM certification exams.

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Practice tests are a very important part of training for the PMI Certification and while there are many online tests simulators it is important to make sure that the tests which you practice on are fully up to date with the new methods and guidelines of PMP since there are many outdated tests online. Investing in a good paid practice examination will make sure that you get the best training.

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That is really nice that a practice exam should provide a simulation experience. Having an exam preparation training for the real thing is something that I would love to have. Testing has never been something that I have done well at and it would serve me well to be trained and prepared before I take an exam.